CHAPTER 45
RILEY
It was exactly twenty-eight minutes later when Brady pulled up in my drive.
Mom had been waiting on me when I walked inside, and I’d told her about the game although she had watched it. I left out the bit about Brady and his dad. When I told her Brady was coming to get me to take me to the field party, she beamed like I’d just won an award.
I had been worried about leaving them to watch over Bryony longer, although she was asleep and rarely ever woke up at night. Still, she was my responsibility. I didn’t like to leave her with my parents too much. Our life had been so different before Brady Higgens had walked back into it. I wasn’t used to having anywhere to go.
“I’m so glad things went well. You’ll have fun at the field. I remember you always talking about going when you were younger. That got snatched from you,” she’d said.
I was coming home from the field party when Rhett had pulled down a dirt road and raped me. That wasn’t a fond memory, although the result was my daughter. The moment I held her in my hands, the emotions regarding that night faded. They no longer seemed important. She was all that was important.
Mom was now in her bed, and I locked the door behind me as I stepped outside to meet Brady halfway on the sidewalk. He’d been coming to the door to get me. I liked that about him.
“Everything okay?” I asked him, knowing his mother would have wanted answers once they were alone.
He looked pained. Like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. “No, not really. Doubt it will ever be okay again. She asked and I told her to talk to her husband about it.”
“You called him her husband?” I asked
He nodded. “I can’t call him anything else. I even hate calling him that.”
“Was he at home?”
He shook his head. “No. And when she called him, he didn’t answer. My guess is he ran off to tell his girlfriend they were about to be exposed. Fucker left my mother there alone. He didn’t even tell her he was leaving. She knows something is very wrong. I can see it in her eyes.”
“Should you go home and stay with her? What if he comes home tonight and tells her?”
Brady paused at the passenger side door. “I thought about it. But if he’s going to tell her, I don’t think she would want me there. That would upset her more for me to hear. I’m not planning on staying out too late, though.”
I didn’t blame him. His mom was going to need him soon.
He opened the door and I climbed inside.
I watched him walk around the front of the truck, and instead of tonight’s victory being a reason to celebrate, it was the furthest thing from his mind. His father had taken that from him too.
We drove in silence toward the field. His hand held mine firmly as if he needed the reassurance that I was there. That he wasn’t alone. I thought about his mom and wondered if she was facing his father now or if she had any idea as to what was to come.
When he pulled into the darkness of the trees and toward the light of the bonfire, I remembered a night like this one in August when I had come here. I hadn’t planned on getting out. I’d just wanted to see it. See the people here that I had left behind. The only person I saw was Brady, and he glared at me. That one look had told me how unwelcome I was. He hadn’t had to say anything.
Now here I sat with my hand in his, in his truck, about to walk into this scene while his world fell apart around him. Life was funny like that. The twists and turns it made were never expected. You couldn’t predict this. That made life interesting, worth going on and seeing how it would change.
Brady didn’t know that yet. He would find out one day. When this was a memory. The pain would heal. Telling him that didn’t help the present, though. So I kept my mouth shut and looked at him as he stared straight ahead. As if getting out of the truck was too much right now.
“They think my life is perfect,” he said, watching the people laughing and partying in the distance. “I always had the easy life. All of them have probably faced something. Not me. Not until now.”
I didn’t have a response for that. I didn’t think he needed one. He was lost in his thoughts. I let him collect himself and get mentally ready to act like the Brady Higgens they were all expecting.
This was the field party, but after a game it was Brady’s show. They all wanted to be near him. He knew that, and tonight that wasn’t going to be easy.
“You ready?” he asked, squeezing my hand.
“If you are,” I told him.
A sad smile touched his face. “Then let’s go.”
We walked toward the party with our hands once again linked. If the kiss wasn’t seen by enough people after the game, this would be noticed by the entire crowd here.